14/09/2022

Web 3.0 Live Demo Day with CityDAO

Last Friday the Managing Director of Molecule Group – Krzysztof Bulski – was joined by Eric Gilbert-Williams – Canadian entrepreneur, host of the CityDAO Podcast and CEO of MemeMarket – for another instalment of our Web 3.0 Live Demo Day. If you missed the livestream on our Instagram, you can still watch a recording of it:

What is CityDAO?

CityDAO can be described as an experiment in decentralised land ownership. It started in July 2021, shortly after the state of Wyoming passed bill 51, which recognised DAO Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and gave them enforceable rights, the same as regular non-blockchain LLCs. 

Thanks to fundraising, the project was able to acquire a 40 acre piece of land in Wyoming, and put the ownership of it into the DAO LLC. The governance over CityDAO as a whole, including the land and the treasury, was put into NFTs. This means that NFT owners can use them as means of voting for proposals regarding any decision-making around the project. 

As of right now, approximately 8000 CityDAO NFTs were issued, and the communities on Discord and Twitter count around 30 000 people each. Currently, CityDAO is looking to expand and buy another plot of land soon.

Eric describes CityDAO as a group of social scientists, explorers, and pioneers united by a common belief that ‘better is possible’, especially in the context of political governance.

One of the core principles of the improved governance is the ability for people to hold political leaders accountable. 

Compared to most political systems, holding people accountable in a DAO system is more straightforward. If a leader doesn’t deliver on their promises or goes against their word, any member can issue a proposal at any time, suggesting to, for example, remove the leader from their station. If there is enough support for that proposal in the community, it goes through and takes effect pretty much instantly, without the need for excessive bureaucracy. This ensures a more reliable democratic process, where the capacity to influence leadership structures doesn’t just end with voting.

When asked about business opportunities that CityDAO presents, Eric says that online, blockchain-based communities create demand for facilities that ease virtual communication. Hence, generating opportunities for software developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors. Another business avenue highlighted by this project is cybersecurity. While citizens enjoy different protections offered by their state, cybersecurity isn’t one of them. Even though it’s pertinent to everyone with any online presence, it’s down to the private sector to provide these protections to people, and blockchain technology has capacity to do exactly that.

While our Demo live Days usually take a deep dive into one specific web 3 project, this week’s guest was able to provide us with insight into two quite distinct endeavours. 

Meme Market and NFTs

New to his involvement with CityDAO, Eric is also the CEO of Meme Market. When people think of memes, what comes to mind are funny pictures with funny captions that we look at to pass time and entertain ourselves. The Meme Market takes that concept, and hones in on the aspect of images being able to communicate thoughts and ideas. It’s a platform for people to interact and work with memes in a novel way, while providing new opportunities for monetisation for creators who make impactful memes. 

The Stonk Market is a feature of the platform, which allows people to speculate on the popularity of memes in the future using tokens. This process doubles as researching meme virality in hopes to get a better understanding of the phenomenon.

The Meme Market team is currently working on a feature where creators of the memes uploaded to MemeMarket will be rewarded with royalties based on how many people vote and predict their memes to go viral.

The long-term vision for the Meme Market is to create a sustainable tokenomics model while bridging the gap between corporations, regular people, and creators to achieve a more organic environment for their interactions. This includes a budding version of collaborative advertising, where the community is incentivised to work with brands on viral memes.

During our Web3 Demo Live Day Eric also commented on the current bear market for NFTs and explained why people call it a bear market in the first place. As one of the reasons for the current state of affairs, he points to the deregulation of the NFT market. The lack of regulation, while great for growth and exploration, also makes it possible for specific projects or coins to get ‘pumped’ with funds and investments beyond what would be possible in a regulated stock exchange. Some of these projects are ‘hyped’ beyond what they can deliver, and when these inflated projects ‘pop’, we get market crashes like the one we’re experiencing right now. Eric also uses a great analogy about candy to describe why people are hesitant about the NFT market and what its future holds. In short, while the number of transactions has gone down, their quality has gone up and the hope is that investors will learn from past mistakes.

Eric also highlights that while the value of individual NFTs has gone down significantly, the mass recognition and adoption of the technology has vastly increased, which bodes well for the future of web3. 

At Molecule Group, we’re always excited to learn about and highlight new technologies, ideas, and strategies, and our Web3 Live Demo Days are an example of that. If you share our excitement and want to learn more about Web3 and its most prominent voices, follow us on Instagram and join us for another instalment of the Molecule Web3 Live Demo Day.

Join our newsletter to stay current with our latest insights!



    14/09/2022

    Web 3.0 Live Demo Day with CityDAO

    Last Friday the Managing Director of Molecule Group – Krzysztof Bulski – was joined by Eric Gilbert-Williams – Canadian entrepreneur, host of the CityDAO Podcast and CEO of MemeMarket – for another instalment of our Web 3.0 Live Demo Day. If you missed the livestream on our Instagram, you can still watch a recording of it:

    What is CityDAO?

    CityDAO can be described as an experiment in decentralised land ownership. It started in July 2021, shortly after the state of Wyoming passed bill 51, which recognised DAO Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and gave them enforceable rights, the same as regular non-blockchain LLCs. 

    Thanks to fundraising, the project was able to acquire a 40 acre piece of land in Wyoming, and put the ownership of it into the DAO LLC. The governance over CityDAO as a whole, including the land and the treasury, was put into NFTs. This means that NFT owners can use them as means of voting for proposals regarding any decision-making around the project. 

    As of right now, approximately 8000 CityDAO NFTs were issued, and the communities on Discord and Twitter count around 30 000 people each. Currently, CityDAO is looking to expand and buy another plot of land soon.

    Eric describes CityDAO as a group of social scientists, explorers, and pioneers united by a common belief that ‘better is possible’, especially in the context of political governance.

    One of the core principles of the improved governance is the ability for people to hold political leaders accountable. 

    Compared to most political systems, holding people accountable in a DAO system is more straightforward. If a leader doesn’t deliver on their promises or goes against their word, any member can issue a proposal at any time, suggesting to, for example, remove the leader from their station. If there is enough support for that proposal in the community, it goes through and takes effect pretty much instantly, without the need for excessive bureaucracy. This ensures a more reliable democratic process, where the capacity to influence leadership structures doesn’t just end with voting.

    When asked about business opportunities that CityDAO presents, Eric says that online, blockchain-based communities create demand for facilities that ease virtual communication. Hence, generating opportunities for software developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors. Another business avenue highlighted by this project is cybersecurity. While citizens enjoy different protections offered by their state, cybersecurity isn’t one of them. Even though it’s pertinent to everyone with any online presence, it’s down to the private sector to provide these protections to people, and blockchain technology has capacity to do exactly that.

    While our Demo live Days usually take a deep dive into one specific web 3 project, this week’s guest was able to provide us with insight into two quite distinct endeavours. 

    Meme Market and NFTs

    New to his involvement with CityDAO, Eric is also the CEO of Meme Market. When people think of memes, what comes to mind are funny pictures with funny captions that we look at to pass time and entertain ourselves. The Meme Market takes that concept, and hones in on the aspect of images being able to communicate thoughts and ideas. It’s a platform for people to interact and work with memes in a novel way, while providing new opportunities for monetisation for creators who make impactful memes. 

    The Stonk Market is a feature of the platform, which allows people to speculate on the popularity of memes in the future using tokens. This process doubles as researching meme virality in hopes to get a better understanding of the phenomenon.

    The Meme Market team is currently working on a feature where creators of the memes uploaded to MemeMarket will be rewarded with royalties based on how many people vote and predict their memes to go viral.

    The long-term vision for the Meme Market is to create a sustainable tokenomics model while bridging the gap between corporations, regular people, and creators to achieve a more organic environment for their interactions. This includes a budding version of collaborative advertising, where the community is incentivised to work with brands on viral memes.

    During our Web3 Demo Live Day Eric also commented on the current bear market for NFTs and explained why people call it a bear market in the first place. As one of the reasons for the current state of affairs, he points to the deregulation of the NFT market. The lack of regulation, while great for growth and exploration, also makes it possible for specific projects or coins to get ‘pumped’ with funds and investments beyond what would be possible in a regulated stock exchange. Some of these projects are ‘hyped’ beyond what they can deliver, and when these inflated projects ‘pop’, we get market crashes like the one we’re experiencing right now. Eric also uses a great analogy about candy to describe why people are hesitant about the NFT market and what its future holds. In short, while the number of transactions has gone down, their quality has gone up and the hope is that investors will learn from past mistakes.

    Eric also highlights that while the value of individual NFTs has gone down significantly, the mass recognition and adoption of the technology has vastly increased, which bodes well for the future of web3. 

    At Molecule Group, we’re always excited to learn about and highlight new technologies, ideas, and strategies, and our Web3 Live Demo Days are an example of that. If you share our excitement and want to learn more about Web3 and its most prominent voices, follow us on Instagram and join us for another instalment of the Molecule Web3 Live Demo Day.

    Join our newsletter to stay current with our latest insights!